Can't get personal mod folder to work

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I just installed 4.195 and also previously uninstalled my older version which was 4.004. It seems that my older mods folder under 4.004 was left intact and some modded textures that I made are still there however nothing is showing.

I did a simple test where I re-textured the AH-1Q cobra and put that file in every conceivable folder and it never shows up in the sim.

I kinda remember resorting to using JSGME and using it to move the textures into the main folder in the past, but I"d really like to just use the mod folder as it's intended. I have seen where others seem to be having the same issues in the past, anybody have advice how to get it working?

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it seems be an issue with some individual files and not others- for instance i noticed that the program appears to ignore the mods folder for all the new russian prototype vehicles, but mods i created for iraq and syria still work from the previous version (perhaps nations with camo variations from multiple time periods have this problem, i.e. us 1970s/1980s/1990s/2000 break the connection with the mod folder somehow)

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I use a lot of texture mods. A lot. My Mods/Textures folder weighs in at 2.3 GB. (That's about half what the stock installation folder, with all the game files, weighs.) I mention that because I've checked most of them in 4.1x, and I haven't seen any issues at all with individual files or folders -- beyond the normal quirks already known and discussed elsewhere here.

@Captain_Colossus, I didn't see any evidence the sim ignores the new prototypes. I was able to successfully put a test glob of red paint on an Armata's hull as Russia 2020 .. no problem.
So I'm not sure what's wrong there. I do know a number of vehicles draw their textures from multiple files. Sometimes that can be a headache when you can't find the right one or, in some cases, when a texture file for an attachment to a vehicle needs to be outside the nation folder to show up. Maybe the turrets on the Armatas are like that. I don't know; I didn't test it.

As for @Monkie putting a file in "every conceivable folder" and not seeing it in sim, maybe he could elaborate. I'm sure there's just a simple error at work here. Seasonal theme; nation choice; file naming or formatting error. Could be any number of things.

As for the folders being carried over from the previous installation ... That shouldn't effect whether you see your mods. Folders/nations were added, but none were taken away or renamed. If they worked before, they should still work. (Mine do).

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As for the folders being carried over from the previous installation ... That shouldn't effect whether you see your mods. Folders/nations were added, but none were taken away or renamed. If they worked before, they should still work. (Mine do).

of course it shouldn't do that, but i have seen it do this. it should be the same installation for you as it is for me, but i have seen what monkie describes

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So my example is the texture for the AH-1Q Cobra helicopter. The file name is "AH1Qcobra.dds" and if you look in the main programs folder you will see this texture occurs for the US Army variant under the folder "woodland". So from this one would gather that if I put my modified texture in the Mods\textures\woodland folder the program would load the modified texture which it doesn't. So I decided what the heck, I'll put the same modified texture not only in the Mods\textures\woodland folder I put it in the Autum, Camo and Winter folders as well, just in case but again I'm not seeing the new texture no matter what.

The name is the same and if I replace the existing and only example of the AH-1Q texture in the main folder (the green US Army version not the desert or Turkish or Israeli versions) the modified texture file shows up just fine in game, so it's not a simple case of the file being misspelled or the file being the wrong format.

It just seems that for whatever reason my personal mod folder isn't being looked at by the program. Perhaps there is a registry issue that comes into play after uninstalling and reinstalling the new versions over time?

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So my example is the texture for the AH-1Q Cobra helicopter. The file name is "AH1Qcobra.dds" and if you look in the main programs folder you will see this texture occurs for the US Army variant under the folder "woodland". So from this one would gather that if I put my modified texture in the Mods\textures\woodland folder the program would load the modified texture which it doesn't. So I decided what the heck, I'll put the same modified texture not only in the Mods\textures\woodland folder I put it in the Autum, Camo and Winter folders as well, just in case but again I'm not seeing the new texture no matter what.

The name is the same and if I replace the existing and only example of the AH-1Q texture in the main folder (the green US Army version not the desert or Turkish or Israeli versions) the modified texture file shows up just fine in game, so it's not a simple case of the file being misspelled or the file being the wrong format.

It just seems that for whatever reason my personal mod folder isn't being looked at by the program. Perhaps there is a registry issue that comes into play after uninstalling and reinstalling the new versions over time?

Are you sure you are putting it in a folder which matches the nation you have it on?. Lets say you are using the Cobra and your nation is US 1970s. There is no Cobra texture in the US 1970 folder then SB WILL use the texture in your woodland folder in the game install. I am not sure the same is true for mod textures. You may need to put the file in a Woodland\US 1970 folder in the mods folder.

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Dark, from his description, he is not putting the file in a nation folder ... just in the mods/textures/woodland parent folder. That, of course, is his problem.

@Monkie. Thanks for the elaboration. As Dark says, if you want to see the skin when, for example, us1970 is one of the parties in your woodland-themed mission, the file must be in that subfolder of the woodland mods folder.

If you want to see it when using us1980, us1990, us2000, Turkey, Israel, Iran, etc, or any other nation's camo ... you need to copy the file into those folders as well. Furthermore. If you want to see it when the map's theme is something other than woodland, the file needs also to be copied to the specific nations' folders of those (winter, desert, autumn) parent folders as well.

For a refresher, check this previous post:

[At the risk of making this more complicated -- Ignore this if you like, since it's more related to what @Captain_Colossus wrote -- Some texture files do work in the seasonal parent mod folders (outside of the nation folders), but these are generally not vehicle skins but rather "attachments" to the vehicles (the biber's bridge, the T72's MG mount, for example). Other modded textures like grasses, bridges and buildings also had to be outside the nation folders to work -- but I haven't checked yet whether that's the case in 4.1x.]

Edited August 20 by SplashAdded link to previous discussion of the same topic.

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It's a bit embarrassing to see I asked the same question 3 years ago but it's impossible to remember anything as I get older and slower. Unfortunately I can't keep up with SB as it evolves over the years and I find myself relearning things over and over when I show back for the new updates. Thanks for your help again.

The only issue I have with the way the system is implemented is that instead of replacing the skin of the Cobra one time I have to duplicate that skin in multiple folders depending on the theme. So it creates a bigger footprint in my MOD folder which is also located on my C drive. My C drive has windows and I really don't want to load it up anymore than i have to. I am assuming that there is no way to move the MOD folder to another drive and it must remain in the users documents folder?

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OS is also on my C drive (which is historically reasonable), Windows gives you a utility to move the Documents folder. I moved mine to my J drive (very large capacity), it works fine, any program can find it since it was moved by OS and I didn't have to mess with a symlink or etc.